Life is a funny thing. There was a time before we were born and there will be a time after we die, yet what we experience is all we can account for when we talk about life. But have you ever wondered if there was more? Something more than just what we see, smell and touch. Hell, maybe there is even more to life than we are even able to comprehend. When it comes to understanding the true meaning of life I believe we need to start to think about more than what we have experienced and start to wonder why we are here.
Thinking beyond our senses
It is easy to see a tree and understand it needs sun, water and good soil to grow. We can touch the tree and know it's real, we can smell its leaves or flowers and know there is parts of the anatomy of the leaves that makes it smell. But why does it look the way it does? Grow the way it is? Sure there may be a logical explanation for all of it. However, it took billions of years for that tree to be in front of you, and to be in all of its magnificence, just how it is. Plants go through evolution just as animals do. Evolution is a constant state of continuing to be better performing beings or things. Adapting to live longer, getting accustomed to different environments in order to not only survive but to thrive.
Take that same mindset and apply it to humans. We only have a finite time to live so maybe it's not as easy to see the evolutionary process. But it's happening everyday all the time, we are in a constant state of trying to live better, feel better and think better. Humans have gotten to a point where we are no longer just trying to survive, we have built an infrastructure that allows us to not only survive but to thrive, so maybe our evolutionary process is no longer physical and is more how our mind evolves.
Humor me... So if we are not threatened by our physical limitations anymore, how would we be able to evolve mentally, again not just to survive but to thrive. Maybe this has to do with intelligence, but what if it is more than that, what if our understanding of life is what needs to evolve. How we all make up a society, how we communicate not only with our words but with our ideas. Is it possible that we need to start to think about life differently than the material world? Is this where religion comes in? I am in no way a religious but I think it brings up an interesting concept which might hold some truth. Something greater than ourselves.
Religion and the message behind it
Religion has been behind more wars and has been one of the most prevalent thing in human history. Have you ever stopped to think why? How can religion dictate so many peoples lives when there is little to no evidence that a heaven, hell or even god exists? I believe it's because people know, and have known for thousands of years that there is something more beyond this physical world.
There are lots of different beliefs and interpretations of religion, but what is the basis behind most if not all of them? Down to the most basic aspect of religion, is just be a good person. If you treat your neighbor with respect and spread a positive message and be selfless through your actions you will go to a better place in the afterlife. Isn't that kind of nice? The way to transcend to a better place is just be a good person, absent of judgement, with an open and free mind to everyone and everything around you.
Coming from me, someone who has not been raised to be religious, I do believe that there is something there to learn and accept. I think the majority of people out there do believe that there is something more to life than what we perceive. So why not try to explore that further? Why have we not accepted that fact, and why haven't we tried to look into it more?
Open Your Mind to the Unknown
I think we can all agree that not everything is completely understood. Now it's one thing when we talk about math or science. Sure we have come a long way in understanding the basics, but even with these subjects there is more to learn. What if we think about the ocean or space, how much do we really know about these things? The answer is not much. How about when it comes to the afterlife, or how our Earth came to be? We know almost nothing about these topics. So its time we start to expand our minds to at least understanding that there is more to learn always, and maybe thinking outside the box will allow us to have further progress in learning these things.
When it comes to life, we barely have a grasp on how it started let alone the meaning behind it. Let's start to be curious and not take our normal lives so seriously. If we can agree that there is something more to life than what we can see, smell and touch. Then it's time to start bringing this thought process into our everyday lives. Looking at a tree, and saying wow what an amazing phenomenon this tree is. Why do the leaves change colors, how did this tree end up in front of me, instead of overlooking the tree as just another tree on our morning commute to work. Long story short, expand your mind, allow yourself to think differently and be open to a new way of not only looking at life but living it.
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